1. Technical Field
The present disclosure is related to a minimally invasive surgical instrument. In particular, the present disclosure is related to a minimally invasive surgical instrument for providing needle-based therapy including ablation therapy.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Minimally invasive surgery is known under various names (e.g., endoscopy, laparoscopy, arthroscopy, endovascular, keyhole, etc.), often specific to the anatomical area in which work is done. Such surgery includes the use of both hand-held and teleoperated/telemanipulated/telepresence (robot assisted/telerobotics) equipment, such as the da Vinci® Surgical System commercialized by Intuitive Surgical, Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif. Both diagnostic (e.g., biopsy) and therapeutic procedures may be performed using such robot assisted equipment. Instruments may be inserted into a patient percutaneously via surgical incision or via natural orifice. Although teleoperative surgery using the da Vinci® Surgical System provides great benefits over, for instance, many hand-held procedures, for some patients and for some anatomical areas the da Vinci® Surgical System is unable to effectively access a surgical site. For example, the da Vinci® Surgical System may be inadequate for performing certain types of surgeries and therapies, including needle-based surgeries and percutaneous procedures such as prostate focal therapy.
Prostate cancer is among the most common noncutaneous cancers in American men. There are two common screening methods for prostrate cancer, namely the prostate-specific antigen test (PSA) and the digital rectal exam (DRE). The PSA test, which determines a likelihood of prostate cancer from antigen concentrations in the blood sample, is not conclusive. In the DRE, the physician can determine whether the prostate gland is enlarged or there are abnormal nodules present. In either case, needle biopsies are often recommended to determine if tumors exist and whether or not any tumor is benign or malignant. Each year 1.5 million core needle biopsies are performed, yielding several hundred thousand new cases of prostate cancer. In many cases, early detection of the cancer results in higher efficacy of the treatment methods utilized. Further, MRI-guided needle based therapies (biopsies, localized laser ablations, delivery of implantable seeds utilized in low-dose-rate (LDR) permanent brachytherapy, which is a common treatment for prostrate cancer, or other treatment) have been demonstrated to be successful. However, manipulation of the needle in the confined space afforded by the typical MRI instrument has proven challenging.
What is needed is a minimally invasive surgical instrument that can be used to perform image guided needle-based therapies and surgeries.